Does Tabby charge interest?

Tabby states there are no late fees and no interest on its Saudi plans. Its Pay in 4 carries a processing fee of 1%, capped at SAR 50, shown before you confirm the purchase.

Tabby states that the Shariah Review Bureau certified its Saudi plans, and describes it as a Middle East based firm with more than 37 scholars on its platform. It is an outside certification body rather than a Tabby committee.

What about the other pay-later apps?

Most of them publish far less. Cashew in the UAE advertises interest-free splitting and names no Sharia body at all. Saudi has more providers permitted by the central bank, and Egypt's market runs on longer monthly plans through valU, Sympl, Souhoola and Contact. Where a provider publishes nothing, we have recorded nothing.

Why does it matter who reviewed it?

Because it is the only part of the question a shopper can check. A certification firm with no other relationship to the company has nothing riding on the conclusion. A committee the company convened does, even when its members are independent and well qualified. Both are disclosed positions. They are not the same kind of assurance.

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Q: Who reviewed Tamara?

A three-person Sharia committee that Tamara names publicly: Sheikh Prof. Yousef bin Abdullah Al Shubaily as chairman, Sheikh Prof. Saad bin Turki Al-Khathlan, and Sheikh Dr. Khalid bin Mohammed Alsayari, who Tamara notes sits on AAOIFI's Shari'ah Standards Committee. Tamara describes the committee as independent.

Every one of these providers says it charges no interest. Most of them still charge something, and only some name the body that reviewed it. Here is what each one publishes, with the page and the date we read it.

Which app

Which plan

What you are buying

valU fee page·checked September 12, 2026

How it works

1
Read the provider's own page, not a summary of it
Everything below is quoted from the company's own site. Where a company says nothing about Sharia, that is recorded as saying nothing.
2
Look for a named body
An outside certifier, a committee with published members, or neither. This is the part you can check yourself without any training.
3
Take the ruling to someone qualified
Savooh reports positions and does not issue rulings. Anyone who wants one should ask a scholar.

Interest-free and Sharia-certified are two different claims

Nearly every pay-later app in the Gulf and Egypt says the same thing on its home page: no interest. Fewer of them say who checked that, and that second claim is the one you can actually verify. One provider points you at an outside certification firm. Another publishes the names of the scholars on its committee. Several say nothing at all beyond the marketing line.

Savooh is not in a position to rule on any of this, and does not try to. What follows is what each company publishes about itself, with the page we read and the day we read it.

Tabby

Tabby states that all its Saudi installment plans, Pay in 4 and the longer ones, are Shariah-compliant, and that the Shariah Review Bureau certified them. Its Pay in 4 carries a processing fee of 1%, capped at SAR 50. On the same page it states there are no late fees and no interest.

Tabby's Sharia page describes the Shariah Review Bureau as a Middle East based firm with a scholarly platform of more than 37 scholars, and gives its Saudi Central Bank licence number as 106. Both pages are written for the Saudi market specifically.

Tamara

Tamara publishes the names of its Sharia committee, which is three people: Sheikh Prof. Yousef bin Abdullah Al Shubaily as chairman, Sheikh Prof. Saad bin Turki Al-Khathlan, and Sheikh Dr. Khalid bin Mohammed Alsayari. Tamara notes that Alsayari sits on the Shari'ah Standards Committee at AAOIFI, the body that writes the accounting and auditing standards most Islamic financial institutions work to.

Tamara describes the committee as independent and says it has the authority to review the company's contracts and agreements. Its page carries the line "no late fees, Sharia compliant", and it publishes downloadable committee approvals, including one covering BNPL processing fees.

What separates them

Tabby hands the question to an outside firm whose business is certification. Tamara keeps it with a committee it convened, and answers the obvious objection by publishing who is on it. Neither approach is hidden, and both have people with real standing attached.

The structural point is simple enough: a certifier with no other relationship to the company has nothing riding on the answer, while a committee the company assembled does, however qualified its members. That is not a ruling on either one. It is the part a shopper can check without any training in fiqh, which is why we put it first.

The rest of the market says much less

Cashew, in the UAE, advertises splitting a purchase "interest-free" and shows every payment date and amount before you agree. It names no Sharia board and makes no compliance claim on its site. That is not an accusation of anything. It is a different kind of statement, and worth not confusing with the first kind.

Most of the market sits closer to Cashew than to Tabby. Saudi has a growing list of providers permitted by the central bank, Madfu and Spotii among them. Egypt's market runs on monthly installment plans through valU, Sympl, Souhoola, Contact and others, and is structured differently again, usually over longer terms. Where a provider does not publish a Sharia position, we have not invented one for it, and you should read the absence as an absence rather than as either answer.

Before you rely on any of this

Every figure here carries the page we read it from and the date. Fees move, and they move per market: the 1% and the SAR 50 cap are the Saudi entity's, and we have not checked them against Tabby's UAE operation. Read the provider's own page before you commit at checkout.

This is a report of what these companies and their committees state. It is not a fatwa from Savooh. The scholarly disagreement about these fees is real and unresolved, and anyone who wants a ruling should ask someone qualified to give one.

What this tool cannot tell you

Read this before you act on the number. Every one of these has a point past which it stops being reliable, and we would rather you knew where that point is.

This is not a fatwa
Savooh has no religious authority and issues no ruling. This page reports what companies state about themselves.
The figures are Saudi-entity figures
Fees differ by market and by licence. Nothing here describes the UAE or Egyptian entity of any provider.
Terms change without notice
Each figure carries the date we read it. Tabby's Pay in 4 fee, for one, was introduced partway through 2025. Check the provider's page before you rely on it.

Common questions

Savooh does not answer that, and nobody should take a shopping site's word for it either way. The disagreement among scholars about these processing fees is real and unresolved. What this page can tell you is which providers publish a Sharia position and who reviewed it, which is the part you can verify before asking anyone.

Quick answers

Is Tabby Sharia-compliant?: Tabby states that all its Saudi installment plans are Shariah-compliant, certified by the Shariah Review Bureau, with no interest and no late fees, and that Pay in 4 carries a 1% processing fee capped at SAR 50. Savooh reports that position and does not rule on it.
Is Tamara Sharia-compliant?: Tamara states it is Sharia compliant with no late fees, overseen by an independent three-member Sharia committee it names publicly, one of whom sits on AAOIFI's Shari'ah Standards Committee. Savooh reports that position and does not rule on it.
Which buy now, pay later providers name a Sharia body?: Of the providers on this page, Tabby names an outside certifier, the Shariah Review Bureau, and Tamara names the three scholars on its own committee. Cashew in the UAE advertises interest-free payments but names no Sharia body. Several other Gulf and Egyptian providers publish no Sharia position.
Does Tabby charge a fee in Saudi Arabia?: Yes. Tabby states that Pay in 4 carries a one-time processing fee of 1%, capped at SAR 50, disclosed before the purchase is confirmed, alongside its statement that there is no interest and there are no late fees.